


Renewal (The Rise of Skywalker: Redeemed Edition)

by joonfired



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Dark rises and Light to meet it, F/M, Fix-It, Force Balance, Force Bond (Star Wars), Force Dyad (Star Wars), Force Ghosts, Force Healing, Force-Sensitive Finn (Star Wars), Happy Ending, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I hope they pull a fake-out and make a 4th movie, I reject this finale, I'm salty as Crait over TROS, Let the past die; Kill it if you have to, Manipulative Sheev Palpatine, Non-Graphic Smut, Not Really Character Death, Not my canon, Poe Dameron/Finn Fluff, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Quote: The Force works in mysterious ways, Redeemed Ben Solo, Rey gets the belonging she's always wanted, Reylo - Freeform, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers, Stormpilot, The Author Regrets Nothing, The Force, The Force Ships It, Touch-Starved Ben Solo, aka what we should have gotten, can't believe this is the canon finale they gave us, instead of pandering to overused nostalgia, our Princess General deserved better than this, read my rage, too many tags? TOO BAD, which JJ did not or DOES NOT understand???
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:46:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21881227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/joonfired/pseuds/joonfired
Summary: Rey and Ben decide to walk a different path than the one they've been told is theirs.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Finn, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 14
Kudos: 60





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> darn right I'm writing a fix-it  
> and then I'm gonna go back to all my original ideas for IX  
> aka that's my new canon now
> 
> except the kiss  
> that kiss was just . . . ow  
> in a very good way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Balance is restored to the Force

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if I can write this in one hour then they could have given us a better movie

They stand together.

The bond between them is longer strained but solid and clear. They do not need to speak when they sense each other better than any words they might use. They are finally complete.

But it is not enough. They are young and still untested in this new power, knowing only the belonging it brings them.

The dark one knows this, using their innocence for his twisted goals. He laughs and preaches darkness to them as he pulls the light from their souls, draining the connection they’ve fought so long to find.

Rey screams against the inevitable she sees, but Ben is silent though she can feel his agony. She wants to reach out for him physically, ground them by touch. She wants . . .

They collapse to the blackness, limp against the jagged rocks of Exegol. They lay side by side, too empty to move. All they can do is look at each other until her vision is swept away by darkness.

But Ben pulls the last threads of strength to himself. He stands because he knows it cannot end like this; they cannot let it end like this.

He cannot let her end.

He faces the dark one alone. He is weak and scared, but his only choice to stand and keep fighting with every molecule of energy he has left. There is no other path.

And yet, for all his years gathering strength and hoarding it inside, now when it matters the most . . . he is not enough. As he is thrown away he wonders if he will ever be enough.

Ben lands hard and breaks apart, eyes fixed on the distant pinpoint of the shattering sky. He still feels Rey, but her life force is thin and fading. He reaches for her, and she reaches for him.

“Be with me,” they call.

They stretch their senses into the broken past, looking for the voices that have always been there. They reach through the millennia of existence for the ones who have come before them and fought this same fight.

And they are answered.

Ancient power flows restorative through them, giving strength through their pain.

Rey pulls herself to her feet, the souls of all the Jedi standing behind her. She pulls the Skywalker sabers to her for this final, definitive battle.

Ben is too far to stand next to her. So he begins to climb, clinging to every piece of strength his ancestors can offer.

The dark one laughs at their resistance, still thinking them just foolish children too stubborn to die. He attacks with the combined strength of the Dark Side, which Rey meets with all of Light.

“I cannot be defeated,” the dark one claims, sneering at her resistance. “All the Sith live in me.”

She cannot answer yet. She is still focused on opening herself to the spirits they have called, channeling the strength of millennia through her fragile, mortal body.

The dark one throws everything he has at her, but Rey does not fall. She rises.

“And all the Jedi,” she says, taking one shifting step forward, “are with me.”

As the ghosts of past Jedi flicker blue behind the girl in a surging army, the dark one realizes his doom. The spirits inside him know these faces and had all eventually fallen to them. And now they will fall one last time.

The dark one shrieks his rage as the power of the Light slams into his body, shredding the web of darkness he has woven around himself for so long. He is torn apart and the Dark is ended in a blinding flash.

Peace flows through Rey as the lightsabers fall from her hands, landing at almost the same time her knees strike the ground. She smiles at the ghosts of Light as she feels their power dim and fade from her and the galaxy.

She is not alone, even as her body falls spent and lifeless.

Ben is fading, but he cannot go. Not yet. He drags himself over the jagged edge of the pit, his strength coming in faltering gasps and stumbling steps.

He cannot feel Rey anymore, but he sees her body. His mind tells him a truth his heart cannot, will not accept until he pulls himself to her. Only when he cradles her limp form in his arms and sees the blank stare of her eyes does he realize the cost of their victory.

But what victory is this if she is gone? He will not allow it.

What little strength he has left, she will have it.

He cannot let her end.

He places his hand on her and closes his eyes, centering himself and pulling together all the scraps of power left inside him. He breathes it into her slowly, tenderly, hoping it is enough.

He must be enough. For her.

Rey stirs to life and reaches for him, a physical touch. She takes his hand and opens her eyes.

Relief floods through him in a joyous wave. He was enough.

She holds him carefully, their bond flowing strong between them and masking whatever pain they may have. All they know is their connection, bringing them together once more.

She smiles at him. She touches his face and speaks his name like salvation.

He is slipping away and hopes she does not see it. He wants this one moment of happiness first. He wants . . .

Rey kisses him like she fights, fierce and passionately. He can feel her love spilling over his pain like a soothing balm, and he holds her tightly. He doesn’t want to let go. He wants to stay here in her arms, trembling and loved and alive.

But he cannot stop his end. He cannot stay in this moment.

They break away to smile at each other, and the happiness  _ hurts _ now because he cannot keep it. But she is alive, and he can rest with that knowledge.

Ben falls from her arms, the light in his eyes slipping out of reach. Rey tries to hold him but she is still putting herself together from the brink he pulled her back.

“Ben?” she asks, hoping he will answer. She needs him to answer.

He is silent.

“ . . . no.”

The denial falls quiet and heavy from her lips as she stares in blurry disbelief at his body. This wasn’t how it was supposed to end.

“Be with me,” Rey says, calling one more time for those who helped her before.

There is nothing but empty, cold silence. She pushes and stretches her mind into the Force, but there is none to answer. There is no one.

She is alone.

“Be with me!” she cries in a desperate prayer, bent over Ben’s body. “Come back. Ben . . . come back.”

Her tears burn as they fall. The world shakes around her and she is broken, reaching for what she lost. Her voice cracks in an unstoppable waterfall of rage and grief as she lifts her head and  _ screams _ .

Vaguely she senses the ruination around her. This planet is crumbling and taking the ancient darkness with it, those thousand voices crushed into silence by the thundering, tumbling cliffs.

But the destruction does not touch her. She wills it not to.

“Come back,” she gasps, a reedy whisper void of hope and full of loss. “Be with me.”

He brought her back from the brink. She cannot leave this place unless he stands next to her.

Her grasp of power is faint and slippery, but she grits her teeth and pulls the Force to her. Her fingers shake with effort as she reaches for Ben.

But she does not touch him. A hand stops her with kindness, a familiar ring spiraled around one finger.

“Leia,” Rey says, sensing the presence of her spirit.

“Be at peace, Rey,” her master replies, taking her hand from Ben.

“How?” she sobs. “How can I find peace?”

“You will find a way,” Leia replies with a smile. “Together.”

The spirit of the princess kneels by her fallen son. She strokes the hair from his features with a mother's touch before placing a hand upon his forehead.

Leia’s eyes shut with concentration.

Rey feels the gatheration of the Force around her.

Ben opens his eyes onto his mother’s face.

“Mom,” he gasps.

“I’m here, Ben,” she says, holding her boy close as he rises to embrace her.

Leia fades away in his arms, leaving the two of them to stare with tentative hope at each other. They can sense each other, but wonder if it is a memory or a passing. Because it hurts to hope this much.

“They’re gone,” Rey whispers. “Every one of them.”

“All I feel is you,” Ben replies. “Only you.”

They surge towards each other desperately, needing to know this connection is solid and true. And when their lips meet for the second time, the bond is clear and real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> will have a few more chapters to expand upon this ending  
> but literally as soon as Ben faded  
> I knew what I had to write


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Maz sense the change in the Force

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> super short but a brief interlude between Reylo that is necessary
> 
> also I hope I explained my ideas about Force balance . . .

Something has changed.

Finn feels it in that deep, mysterious part of his heart that speaks to him in ways he cannot easily explain. He senses a shift and sorrow and ending as he watches the ships sink in fiery halos below him.

“I feel it, too,” Jannah says next to him.

She reaches for his hand and squeezes tight, but it's not the hand he wants to hold.

He cannot feel Rey. He cannot feel Leia.

He only feels loss and that strange, terrifying change.

The Resistance and their gathered allies leave the crumbling world of darkness behind. Finn leaves Jannah to look for Poe, the one remaining connection he still knows is burning with life. He meets his pilot in the hanger and they collide in an embrace of sparks and sweat and relief.

And BB-8 chirping and bumping against their legs to make his presence known in the hug.

“Yeah, we did it, buddy,” Poe murmurs against Finn’s neck.

“We’re not finished yet,” Finn says.

“Hell no,” laughs Poe. “We’ll never be done in our lifetimes. But our spark is burning high in the galaxy now.”

“Finn.”

That is Maz Kanata, standing in the hanger entrance. The small wizened woman looks at the once-stormtrooper with ancient, knowing eyes.

“The Force has changed,” she says. “Can you feel it?”

“What’s she talking about now?” Poe asks.

“I feel it,” Finn answers her, but he is looking into Poe’s eyes as he speaks.

“The ones before us paid the price to restore true balance to the galaxy,” Maz continues, approaching them to take Finn’s battle-calloused hands in hers. “The past died so the future would live.”

“Hang on, are you a Jedi?” Poe takes a step back. “Buddy, that’s . . .”

“Big news, I know.”

“I do not know if Jedi is the call you hear,” Maz says, closing her eyes. “Perhaps it may be. But the Force calls to you and when it speaks it cannot be ignored.”

The woman opens her eyes and releases Finn’s hands, smiling up at him. And though her eyes glimmer with unshed tears, happiness is in her gaze.

“We must remember the sacrifices given for this gift of peace,” she announces, for now others have gathered, drawn by her words.

Or maybe they also hear a call, a feeling, an instinct stretching to life inside them.

“The Jedi are gone,” Finn says, knowing this to be true.

“And the Sith with them,” Maz adds.

“So you’re telling me there’s  _ no one _ left who uses the Force?” Poe wonders with a frown.

“Not like there was a long, long time ago,” Maz replies. “Once, the past could speak to us. They could help us if that was the will of the Force. But all those years, all those generations have served their purpose in this final defeat of darkness.”

“Rey . . .” Finn whispers. “She’s gone, isn’t she?”

“Yes.”

The return and reunion on their Ajan Kloss base is bittersweet. There is embraces and celebration, hope floating almost tangible in the air . . . but the loss remains.

Hand in hand with Poe, Finn cannot help but keep glancing up at the sky for the distant spot of a returning X-wing. For though their radar says the signal was lost, destroyed with Exegol’s fall, he still hopes.

He hopes even standing next to the leaping flames of the empty funeral pyres they have built for Leia and Rey. He hopes through his tears because he cannot let himself drown in sorrow.

Rey gave her life for the galaxy. He cannot let her sacrifice go to waste.

“There’s more of us,” Jannah says next to him. “Can you feel them?”

She holds one hand and Poe holds his other. All those gathered here are connected in a circle of hands, binding them together to give honor to those departed.

“Yes,” he says.

He feels them like whispering threads in his mind, strings he could reach out and touch if he only knew how. There are so many they mirror the stars shining above them.

“Do you think it will be easier to use the Force?” Poe asks. “Now that the Order is broken and the Sith are gone?”

“I hope so,” Jannah says. “I think that is how things were meant to be before it became all mixed up.”

“Balance,” Finn repeats. “That’s . . . that’s what feels different. Everything is balanced now.”

“Well, here’s to balance,” Poe says, turning to kiss the side of Finn’s head.

“To balance,” Jannah nods.

Finn looks up at the sky, still hoping.

“To balance.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> darn right I put StormPilot in here
> 
> next chapter is nothing but Reylo feels and fluff  
> and smut

**Author's Note:**

> literally so much potential tossed away  
> it was like Star Wars: Endgame, the Frozen II edition  
> aka Disney needs to get better writers and not let them talk to each other  
> except to double-check they're not all writing the same movie


End file.
